The Asian Pride Project and the National Queer Asian and Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) have created a series of public service announcements (PSAs) that began airing last week of Asian Americans "coming out" in Mandarin, Korean, Hindi, Japanese, Tagalog, Laotian, and English. But the messages aren't being delivered by the actual members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) communities. Instead, their parents are doing the talking.
In one video, Harcharan and Kamlesh Bagga speak directly to the camera in Hindi.
“I am proud of my son. I have always been proud of my son," says Harcharan, featured with his wife and son. "It is time to stand and support your children, my children, our children," says Kamlesh.
The entire family says the final line together: "After all, family is still family, and love is still love.”
According to Asian Pride Project director, Aries Liao, the intention was to include Asian American parents in the coming out process, to address the stigmas they face in culturally conservative Asian-Pacific communities.
"We strongly believe that both the LGBTQ individuals and their family members share experiences or fears of being discriminated against, ostracized, shunned or isolated by their social communities," said Liao.
The PSAs are currently airing on local California stations serving large Asian-American communities.
According to The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, based on 2010 US Census data, 2.8% of [Asian Pacific Islander] API adults identify as LGBT and there are approximately 324,600 LGBT API adults in the United States.
Watch all the Asian Parent Pride PSAs here.
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